Connecticut employers added 5,300 positions in October, more jobs than in any other month in 2010. But the state Department of Labor, which produced the estimate Monday, cautioned that a stable jobs recovery is not yet at hand.

In September, employers cut 5,400 jobs, the department reported. And the unemployment rate remained unchanged in October, at 9.1 percent.

The latest data is more evidence that the state's economy has yet to find a consistent trend in 2010, which started strong and weakened in the summer.

Since the beginning of the year, the state has added 8,300 jobs — a weak recovery. By the end of the year, economist Don Klepper-Smith projects, there should be a gain of 10,000 to 12,000 jobs.

While figure is a lot better than the 59,000 jobs lost during 2009, it's not nearly strong enough growth to make a dent in the ranks of the 172,400 unemployed in the state. Of that group, about 34,000 have been out of work more than 18 months.

"What's really tough about this is, you're not going to be adding a significant number of jobs, you're probably going to stay in that 9 percent range," Klepper-Smith, of DataCore Partners in New Haven, said.

Connecticut's unemployment rate of 9.1 percent is below the national average of 9.6 percent, but is significantly higher than New York's 8.3 percent and Massachusetts' 8.1 percent.

The steady unemployment rate also indicates that more job seekers entered the market in October.

Because the jobs numbers are estimates, and massaged to try to eliminate seasonal swings from new graduates, students quitting summer jobs and holiday hiring, it's quite likely that September's losses and October's gains were not as large as they appear.

Of October's gains, 4,300 were in the private sector, which has been closely watched since many of the earlier gains in 2010, and losses later in the year, were among U.S. Census workers who were temporary.

The lack of a consistent trend does make sense, given the lack of business confidence, Klepper-Smith said.

"Especially given the volatile nature of this recovery, I don't think it's going to be a linear growth," even if job growth accelerates next year, he said.

There's a lot of talk about why businesses are so reluctant to hire, especially since large corporations have huge amounts of cash on hand, and many are reporting record profits.

Is it anxiety over higher taxes next year? The consequences of health care reform? Changes to laws concerning carbon emissions? Business groups have suggested all these reasons are responsible for slow hiring.

There's a lot of misconception out there," Klepper-Smith said. "Businesses only add jobs where there's demand."

And when the economy's growing at less than 2 percent a year, there aren't enough sales to call for more workers.

Still, layoffs have fallen from this time last year, and, state Labor Statistics Supervisor Salvatore DiPillo noted, initial unemployment claims are down 5 percent from October 2009 and average weekly hours worked are up.